News / Low pay in Leeds costing taxpayers millions as number of in-work people applying for housing benefit doubles.

Posted by Elliot11pc on February 06, 2015

Low pay in Leeds costing taxpayers millions as number of in-work people applying for housing benefit doubles.

New research from Labour has exposed that the number of in-work households receiving housing benefit in Leeds has more than doubled since David Cameron became Prime Minister.

The research comes as Labour warns that five more years of Tory failure to tackle the issue of low pay will cost taypayers £9bn in additional social security payments.

David Cameron has presided over the largest fall in real terms wages since 1870 with people in Yorkshire on average £1,898 a year worse off now than they were in 2010.

The result has been more people having to call on extra help to make ends meet. In May 2010 just over 64,000 people claimed housing benefit and 6,759 of them were in work. But by August 2014, the number of employed claimants had more than doubled, up 104 per cent to 13,772 people, despite there being just an 11 per cent increase in the total number of people claiming housing benefit.

“David Cameron’s Tory-led government have presided over the steepest fall in living standards since the days of Charles Dickens, and these figures show it is people across Leeds who have paid the price for his economic failure.

“The Tories’ failure to make work pay and their failure to deliver their promises on deficit reduction are two sides of the same coin.

“The number of people earning less than a living wage nationally has rocketed from 3.4 million in 2009-10 to 4.9 million according to the latest figures. This is a major reason the Tory-led government’s lost control of social security spending.

“The choice we now face is clear the Tories’ low wage, low skill economy driving up benefit bills and undermining tax revenues or Labour’s plan: a plan to help businesses create and fill more productive, high skilled jobs. The Tories will leave us paying the bills of in-work poverty for years to come. Only Labour will make work pay.”